The top part shows Heaven, with Jesus in the middle and the apostles at both sides. Jesus is casting the Last Judgment. The lower part shows the chosen, who will be escorted to Heaven, and the doomed, who will be cast into Hell. The archangels Michael and Raphael are holding the cross in the middle.

A curious addition is found at the bottom of the fresco: the commissioner of the Arena Chapel, Enrico Scrovegni, is portrayed as presenting a model of the chapel to the Virgin Mary.

It is possible that Dante, the great Renaissance poet and an acquaintance of Giotto's, was inspired by this depiction of Hell when he wrote Inferno.